Sensibility

I thought I had died and gone to nerd heaven last night when I watched "Sense & Sensibility" (1995) for the first time last night. All my acting pets were in it (Emma, Hugh, Imelda, Aunt Agatha, etc) and it was funny, touching and beautiful together. In fact, I may go watch it for the third time right now.

Sitting Pretty

I have been parrot sitting this week and it has been wonderful. The 5:30 am "Hell-ohhhhh" is adorable and she even called out "Hey, hon" when I was in another room. I see now why greys are so popular.

I finished _Dracula_ at long, long last and it moved pretty fast - for the last three pages at least. I also finished listening to an audio book lecture series called "History of Fantasy" and that was good fun for a week of commuting. My 'to read' list is much longer now! Many of his observations had me saying, yes, yes, that is obvious, but there were a few very good points I had not considered before. I am still reading The Last Samurai (not related to the movie) and finished a quick teen novel that was a free download. A brain-expanding week!

Also keeping me entertained during parrot snuggling time were some movies - "The King's Speech", "Jeeves & Wooster, season 4" and "The Last Samurai" (yes, that one). "TKS" was particularly excellent - I think it will earn a place in my drawer of movies next to "Gosford Park".

Not much to report in the home garden. A weeding / pruning / harvesting / deadheading day needs to be arranged post-haste. The tomato is growing, the lavender is blooming, the sunflowers are opening, the lettuces are bolting... spring has sprung.

Knit a few rows on a simple scarf while listening to the audio book before work / at luch, but still no serious knitting progress to report. The knitting mojo is still gone; it's going on two years now. I have thought about pulling out a cross stitch project of an evening, but haven't made any actual progress. Same for weaving - I stare at cones of yarn but do not approach the warping board. The cats are pleased with my increased petting schedule, however.

Daydream Deferred

Well, I didn' t make it to the beach and didn't do any knitting. But tomorrow is coming up fast and is full of possibility!

I did make it to gardening and that was a good time, as always. Wandered by the grocery stores for some snack food and watched a little TV ("The Legend of the Guardians" and "The Royal Tenenbaums") and petted the kitties. One of the baby cockatiels went from crabby and bitey to snuggly and nibbling my ear within an hour.

Martha strongly (!) recommended "The King's Speech", so that is on my to-watch list. Also coming up is the Dickens Festival; it looks like a really strong programme this year. Some sad news on that theme - the creator of the "renaissance faire", Ron Patterson, passed away on January 14th. It is pretty incredible that such a little idea took off in such a big way.

"I don't need tiny cue cards"

Made it to knitting night tonight - first Friday movie & pizza. Beaker came, ate some pizza crust, didn't talk to anyone, and pooped on my shirt. Good times. The movie was "Easter Parade" and I made it for about an hour. Linda has some pretty new yarns. Might have to stop by tomorrow (parrot free) and visit for a bit. I put a few more rows onto the new sweater... I could finish it this weekend if I really apply myself. On the other hand, I have no real interest in any other projects-in-progress, so I sort of hate to finish it.

The chicks, aged 2 days and 1 day. Full crops, wiggly and full of cheep-cheep-cheep.

I spent some time looking for cockatiel genetics charts to predict what the little tykes will be, but didn't really grasp it. The yellow down means they will not be whitefaces, as far as I can tell. Hamlet is a Pearl Pied split for Cinnamon and Violet is a normal Whiteface. One is quite bald and t'other is only mostly bald. Fingers crossed they continue to thrive!

No work tomorrow (finally), and I don't need to go in on Monday until noon. Of course, I need to spend that time getting a smog check for the car, doing my taxes, geting my driver's license renewed and of course paying the rent, which I only just realized is due sometime, um, soon. Damn you payday, falling on the 7th. Other weekend plans include walking the dogs, doing chores / housekeeping, playing some WoW and plucking the rabbits. That little chore is way overdue and it is getting hot during the days. Mayhap I will even measure out some warp for a little weaving...

This beer sure tastes good, but I am short tempered, what with the 18 lb cat trying to lay on my lap (which is filled with, you know, a laptop). Time to drink a lot of water and maybe hit up the lemon sorbet in the freezer. I have "Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog" running on the other window. It really is my idea of a perfect film.

Monday

A quiet, pleasant day. Got up late, did some stuff around the house, got the mail, went to work, felt capable, came home, now watching some Eddie Izzard, eating a BBC (bagel, bacon and cheese sammich) and getting ready to grab a beer and play some WoW.

Discovered Netflix streaming (ooh must remember to change my atm card number) now carries one of my very favorite movies, "The Passion of Joan of Arc". Right now they just have the silent version, but I think if you get the dvd you can play the musical track. I assume it is the fabulous one by Richard Einhorn. I have seen this movie twice before - once at the world premiere in Northampton (thank you Gina for dragging me through the blizzard!) and once at a performance in Orange county. Each had a live choir and the composer in attendance. Very cool.

Goal for this week (well, forever really) is to not use disposable dishware / cutlery at work. No more iced tea on the way home, so sad. Using a travel cup, so rewarding!

Rising Signs

I think I am at about the zenith of my energy, judged by what I managed to pack into this week (and by what missed the cut). There was work (!), gardening, wool washing, spinning, visiting and dogwalking... sometimes all at the same time. I want to overload my schedule something fierce, but am trying the best I can to only make committments that I can actually keep.Today Fran and I carpooled to the Freeway Lace Guild lace meeting. We stayed for a little bit and then hit the road, stopping by Garden Gate in Covina, Needles and Niceties in Upland and then Michael's to top it all off. Temptation was great (really great) but somehow I managed to resist and came home with nothing but some free cross stitch magazines from the lace meeting trade table and some kumquats. mmmm kumquats. GG is mostly a needlepoint / tapestry store and is just adorable. Fran found her fabric straight away and I admired all the beautiful work. NN is mostly a cross stitch store with a decent yarn selection and getting me out of there was not an easy task. Cross stitch has come a long way and I was dizzy with all the beautiful things there were to see and to create. All in all it was a good day with a good friend. "Detour Days" can go either way, but this was a pleasant one. It sure beat going from car parts store to car parts store. YMMV.Knitting progress is being made on the "Uncloudy Day" socks. #2 is about 3/4 done and I am getting antsy to wear them before it gets any warmer! Great progress was made in the car on our way to the lace guild meeting today. I thought I had a picture of them but it must be on another disk. Cross stitch, quilting, reading and WOW-playing have been sidetracked by production spinning (I dream in brown romney), but I know they will be there when the energy shifts again.I have been washing wool like a madwoman in order to get it shipped to the processor and out of storage. It is slow going but I am trying to keep the quality high as they have a new "WYSIWYG" policy. I figure the fiber is not making me any money (or sweaters) by hiding in the garage. I also like to entertain the neighbors by sorting and picking fleece in the front yard. No way am I bringing that mohair fleece inside. You can smell it from 20 paces (I counted).On Friday I joined Denise at her booth at the Farmers' Market in Riverside (8-12 in the Sears parking lot on Arlington) and helped her demo spinning and fiber arts. There is still time to submit handspun / knitted / lace items to the upcoming fair, so I will get on that in the next month or so. I carved out a little time between *cough cough* midnight and 2am this week to watch "Ring of Bright Water". It is a movie about a man and his otter that I saw once when I was small. Only bits remained in memory, but the story was the same and it was still a pleasure. Except for one part. But we won't talk about that. DestashingThe Flickr folder has been updated. Thank you for your interest! I will add fiber and fleece as I unearth and evaluate it.Time to wrap it up for the day. I highly recommend the link to Desked over in the sidebar. If I started a "link of the week" feature, that would be the current one.

Tess Interacts

A tesseract is a cube in four dimensions, I learned back in my sci-fi days. Hard to describe, impossible to draw, but a masterwork of things existing in the same space as themselves. So it has gone this week in entertainment-ville.

I rented "Tess" last week on a whim (the 1980 version by Roman Polanski, starring Natassja Kinski) and it was superb. Bang on the people, the land and the garb (I haven't read the book) of Hardys 19th cen Wessex (I have read his other books). I kept thinking, why didn't I see ads for this on the telly? Well, it is because it was made 30 years ago! In fact, Sharon Tate was supposed to be Tess... and we all know what happened to her. Anyway, it was a period film where no influence from the outside world filtered in... timeless.

But that isn't the funny thing. The funny thing is that the next night, when I went to re-watch it, PBS was showing... "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". Their version seems to be in 3 or 4 2-hour parts ("Tess" is 3 hours), and it is shot-for-shot, word-for-word, costume-for-costume, nearly identical to the Polanski version. It is dead uncanny. The only bad bit is only one of the cast is using the correct accent. Either the book only has 29 lines, all of which show up in both versions, or someone was making a miniseries in "tribute" to the film.

Either way, it has been a Hardy-har-har weekend. I feel the urge to pick up "The Return of the Native" again.

Patterns

*edit to remove whining*

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Otherwise, I have have attempted to have a nice calm weekend. I don't know that it is working out as planned. Saturday I worked and then watched movies and knit on That Scottish Shawl. I am getting close to done with the center panel and look forward to the next chart. I am also enjoying the project monagamy. The movies were "Hollywoodland" (about the guy who played Superman), and "The Pianist" (who knew it was a real story? must read the book), which both starred Adrien Brody. What a coincidence! The third movie was "Perfume: the story of a murderer" which was a lot wierd but pretty good overall. It is also from a book. It tells the story of a guy who wants to learn how to preserve scent, and hijinks ensue. Starring Professor Snape, Dustin Hoffman, and Ben Whishaw.

Sunday I didn't work but spent so much time discussing whether or not we should work that I just should have ponied up. Then I went to Fran's house and made lace. Her grandkids were visiting and, while they are cute, polite and fun, was a BIG change for me from having cats and dogs around. Eleventy-seven pets are WAY less work than even one kid, I suspect. The lace went swimmingly and I made great progress (one entire repeat out of the 6 required).

Today has been work and then maybe some lace (but it is getting kind of late). I also want to make a stab at going to bellydance tonight.

The big news from last week is that I combined Mr Whiskers and Seamus McCavy into one pen and they did not kill each other. Of course they have the rabbit to referee (he even has a black and white "uniform"). Things are going well so far, especially when I bribe them with banana and blueberries. Here is a bad picture of the truce:

But right this minute I need some lunch. My oatmeal has worn off. And it was a pretty big bowl!

Wanted: Blog Fodder

The garden is growing. I have had a half dozen extremely flavorful strawberries already. The tomatoes are coming right along. I have been harvesting lettuce leaves every week and have a crisperful now. I hope the lettuces last until the tomatoes are ready! The roses are about done, but they had a good run.

While I have been thinking about / doing yoga office stuff all week, I have been lazy about actually going to class. In fact I am playing hookey right this moment. Tomorrow for sure. I spend a lot of time each day telling everyone how they should come to yoga and about all the different classes and events we have going on in May. I went to slow deep stretch this week, though, and the spot in my back / sacrum that has been bothering me for a YEAR finally popped into place. It was quite a noise, but it feels better now.

I have been playing (far too much) WOW this week and had forgotten how fun it is. Unless I am dying, which was the case this afternoon. Geez, that is frustrating. Mostly playing WOW at the coffee shop makes me long for an internet connection at home. Not until the cat feels better and the job situation is more stable. Or at least until the cat feels better. She has been losing weight over the last couple months and the vet found some elevated levels of bad stuff in her bloodwork, so she got a sub-q shot of cortisone and is on some antibiotics. I have a few choice words for whoever invented giving gritty, cold, nasty tasting fluids to cats. She gets all suspicious when I head for the refrigerator now.

Knitting progress has been slow - mostly I am working on finalizing the "Mermaid" pattern for my lace knitting class. It is in my head and on the notepaper, but not graphed up all nice and neat. Interest in making this project is growing and I look forward to sharing it. Maybe I will even get all fancy and figure out how to make it a download-for-sale. I managed to knit 2 inches too far on both sleeves of the Mirepoix bodice and have ripped them back to the place where the increases were supposed to begin in the first place. I never thought I would love 2x2 ribbing this much. I like the yarn quite a lot - Louet gems sport superwash merino. Especially the superwash part. It makes good tv knitting.

Speaking of which, I have been chipping away at the netflix queue. This week is "The Ferrari Experience" (would have been better on fast forward and mute but did have shiny cars) and "Le Mans" (which I tried to watch with Mr. Fixit once, but I fell asleep pretty early on. Not a lot of talking in that movie). Then there was "The Water's Edge" with Nathan Fillion ("Firefly", "Serenity"). If ever you want to holler at the tv, this is the movie for you. Couple with issues moves to scary run down cabin bordering a lake and in the backwoods. Not really drama, not really horror, not really good. Nathan's character is an idiot, but he himself is dreamy. Also in the pile of movies is "Oklahoma" and "7 Brides for 7 Brothers".

Satisfied

Fran and I had a good time at lace knitting last night and put in another 5 good, solid rows on our Icarus shawls. Ending on an up note is nice. She made the most adorable gingerbread house - I can't remember ever meeting someone who has. We also had some excellent chattiness and made plans for our lace day this weekend.

I finished the blue scarf and washed it last night. It is here with me at work, drying, so I can gift it tonight.

Used my 40% off coupon at Borders and scored the very last copy of "Carnivale" season 1 - it was hiding in a display. I love multi layered shows like that which have lots of symbols, only some of which are explained. It lends an air of mystery. I was watching "House" the other day and Chase's dad was the guest; it drove me nuts trying to figure out where I knew that voice from. It is Lodz from "Carnivale". Then when I was watching the credits for "Cannonball Run" I saw Adrienne Barbeau's name, and a little bell jingled in my head. The connection got made last night - she is in "Carnivale" too. What a small acting world.

I am pretty caught up at work, which makes me happy. It is nice not to be buried and hopelessly behind all the time. My policy of working much less is still in effect, and still working out. The fishies are on a diet (which they are not so happy about), but they were getting pretty darn chubby. Maybe I should get a little shark type fish to chase them around.

Woozy

I am back. I did not have a good time. The highlight of my trip was getting an IV on Tuesday night to rehydrate after being violently ill for half the day. Then I was quarantined in my cabin for 2 days (but I escaped for dinner, which was pretty darn tasty). I am still a bit unsteady on land due to being rocked on ship all week. I kind of like the feeling - like being drunk but without the hangover. But I also feel like I will fall off my chair at any moment. I did watch a lot of movies, some of which were surprisingly good: "Evan Almighty", "Night at the Museum", "Pirates: End of the World", "No Reservations", "Ratatouille", "Ocean's 11 (and 13)", and "We are Marshall".

Some knitting did occur. I finished the first sleeve of Petal and have made good progress on sleeve number two. Tonight is movie night at Knit N Stitch ("White Christmas"), and I will take one of my pending projects to work on. Tomorrow is the RiverSpinners Holiday party and the plan is to finish spinning up the Ashland Bay roving in the "seamist" colorway. I don't know what it will be yet, but I love to look at it. It is a grayish-bluish-greenish-goldish-silverish merino / silk blend and I adore it.

I also got a little reading done. Diana Gabaldon's new book "Lord John and the Hand of Devils" came out last week and my Borders had one copy left. If you like historical fiction and mysteries, give it a try.

My friend Anne's guinea pigs are rooming with me temporarily, and they are just adorable. There are 4 babies that are just a few weeks old and they are cute beyond words. I wish I could keep them all, but I think Mr. Whiskers (my GP) would be jealous. Does anyone need a furry friend? We also stopped by the bird store to board her parrots for the week, and it was a narrow miss on me adding another feathered friend to the flock. But I like the birds I have and need to spend more time with them, not get a new one.

And last but certainly not least, a boisterous "shout out" to my friend Rose who watched my pets for me while I was away. Everyone was fat and happy when I came home, the mail was in, and the place was still standing. She is a real trooper.

Anchors Aweigh

Well, it is almost time to go. I have the petsitter all lined up, I did some basic tidying, I have tackled the laundry. Only a trip to the bank, bookstore, pet store, and then packing to do now. I will be back on Thursday.

Last night I played some "Chocolatier" and then I watched "The Gumball Rally" and was well entertained.

Not much knitting progress to report - just another half dozen rows on Mandy's sweater.

Fat and Happy


It was a great weekend. Friday we had open spinning night, and Scott knit on his trivet and I knit on my Painted Desert socks (alternating between the two). Denise had fun spinning stories and job hunting advice. It is so nice to just sit and knit and talk and unwind from the week. I don't know why knitting is soothing, but I know it works and I like it!


Saturday was my exciting and much-anticipated trip to BlizzCon in Anaheim, and it did not disappoint. I got to try the new WoW offering: "Return of the Lich King", listen to presentations and Q&A sessions, and generally soak up the atmosphere. I am only a beginning WoWer, but I kept my mouth shut and my ears open and think I learned a lot. There may be a trip to the coffee shop tonight :) I did NOT ride the mechanical pachyderm thingy.

Sunday Mr. Fixit and I went yard sale-ing in the midday and washed the car and went to see "Harry Potter 5" in the evening. The movie was pretty good; I think it moves faster than #4 and it included many of the things I found interesting in the books, including Harry finding out how his dad treated Snape and Hermione's explanation of all the things girls think about.

Knitting did occur! I fixed Gray sock #2 and have gotten most of the leg done. If I push myself I could finish it tonight, but I think walking the dogs and then a 7pm bedtime might be in order. The Painted Desert socks are both about 6" long (toe to end of foot), so it is nearly time to turn the heels and make a commitment as to whether or not I want a pattern for the leg. The yarn is so striking it might not need one.

The Heel is Turned...


...and knitting progresses on the lacy leg of the 2nd gray sock. Meanwhile, I started the toe of the Painted Desert sock a couple days ago, just to give myself some plain stockinette knitting for those times when I am not capable of working lace.


"The Simpsons Movie" was fantastic! It is on my "must see again soon" list. If you go to see it, stay through the credits.


This weekend I am going to BlizzCon. I hope they don't check to see how long it has been since I last played World of Warcraft. Perhaps tonight after yoga I can find some WoW time.

Where Does the Weekend Go?

I had a nice little weekend. I am trying to finish the first Gray sock and am almost there. There was some trouble with knitting the lace in the round, and neglecting to put a row of plain knitting between each lace row. I also desperately need to get some pictures of the finished socks up on Flickr for the Summer of Socks contest.

Saturday a friend and I went to see "Ratatouille" and I give it two thumbs up. The animation was amazing, the story was pretty good, and the rats were adorable. I have had many a pet rat in my day and they got the personality bang on. I have a minor quibble with the plot: if the point of the story is that a rat can cook because "anyone can cook", why does the story depend on the human assisstant NOT being able to cook? Can't he learn from the rat? I am willing to pretend that he (the human) just didn't WANT to learn.

Sunday we made soap, soap and more soap, and then I dyed some wool for Lambtown. Tonight is rinsing, rinsing and more rinsing.

Mr. Fixit is in Ohio and headed westward. Hooray!